'Sup, 'Slices!?

So, it's like summer or something. And I felt I needed a new theme on the page. I put one on *reveals like Vanna White*, but I'm not in love with it. I'll find something soon, I'm sure. But until then, it may be a little schizo up in dis here page. I don't really have much to add. I don't know why... cuz it's not like I'm not a talkative sort. But, whatever. I shall ramble or something.

So, I got a major hair cut. I literally decided to do it on my way to my stylist. I thought I would have to scream & cry the next day, but oh-no! I adore it! I even have to "style" it, and I still love it. WHAT?!?! I know, it's so crazy.

I'm not sure you can tell from my post so far, but I'm still in a pretty good headspace since the last time I mentioned being, yanno, happy and shit. Still am ... LOOK! Goofy grin. But a grin.

Going camping/cabin'ing this weekend with my bud Sarah and her fam, and Mike of course. Hopefully I will remember to actually take pictures. I doubt it. But I do have my iPhone now.

Oh yah.. I have my iPhone now. So, I promise you won't hear me bitching about not having one. Heh.

Got a Kindle 2 for my bday. I honestly think we're in love. Well... I love it. I call it "Hamlet" and my iPhone is "zazzle". Just go with it, I do.

So, here's another hair pic, cuz I know you were just DYING for another. TADA. This one is from when my stylist did it. See, cuz she knows how to do such things. I am not quite as fortunate, YET.

Hmmm... I feel like I need to write more. Mainly cuz the design aesthetic of my post will be all screwy unless I put enough text to go around this last image. Is this enough yet? Nope.

Dangit.

OH! How could I forget the eventful weekend I just had?!?!?! So, last Thursday afternoon I started to get a headache. It wasn't too big a deal, but it just had this feeling. I knew it was gonna turn into a migraine, but boy I had no clue really. So, later Thursday night it turns into a migraine. Shocking, I know. I kinda get rid of it. Well... tamed enough to work the 2nd half of Friday. But then by the time work was done. Yeow. Back to migraine. Then on Saturday, I pretty much couldn't get rid of it. I had an ice pack on the back of my head pretty much the entire day/night of Saturday. It was the ONLY thing that would do anything for me. I really hate taking my migraine med - Imitrex - cuz it tends to make me feel twice as bad before it makes me feel better. But I did end up taking it Thursday night and then Saturday at some point. GAW. I hate that stuff. By Sunday early evening, I was actually starting to feel quite a bit better. I chilled out and took a bath, read a little. That might have been a mistake. You know.. the whole using of the eyes thing. I dunno... but whatever it was... SLAM! Migraine came at me faster than a speeding jackhammer and I was in tears. I go back to my trusty ice packs, but even then, I can barely breathe the pain is so bad. At about 10:30pm, I finally ask Mike to take me to the ER.

We get to the ER, and they see me pretty quick. I fill out my paper, sign it, as Mike is coming in from parking the car, they have me back there starting with stats and whatnot. From there they put me in my little curtained area. AND the nurse was so incredibly thoughtful because she left the lights off in my area. Another nurse was telling Mike to turn on the lights, and she corrected him real quick. I strip the upper body, but on my nice hospital nightie and a few minutes later the doctor comes in. Young-ish guy that had a bit of a military-ness to him. But I'm simply speculating. And I was half nuts by this point. So, it could have been a female for all I know. He tells me what he's going to do. He's gonna give me 3 meds and some fluids. YahYahYah... just STICK ME already. First comes the fluids... ooh nice and cool, I likey. Then comes the Benadryl (in case I'm allergic to anything they give me)... oooh, trippy. Then they piggybacked that with Toradol and Compazine. After about 15 or so minutes, I go from my nice trippy la-la state to OMGOMGOMG I must move, I can't sit still. But since I'm hooked up to an IV, my only option is to rock back and forth. I kid you not. I finally let Mike go find someone cuz it's getting bad. I start pulling on my toes while I'm rocking back and forth. It's just nuts. The nurse comes, he calls the doc, the docs says he'll come back soon. Like what seemed like forever to me, 30-45 minutes, the doctor finally comes back and says "So, how's the headache?" (headache? douchebag, it's a migraine, it's so very different). I tell him, what headache? No ache in the head at all. Now, what about this weird antsy anxiety thing I got going on. Him - "Yah, looks like we traded one problem for another. But at least the pain is gone." ha ha NO. He tells me they will give me some Ativan and it might help, but I should just keep taking Benadryl every 6 hours, cuz it's all basically an allergic reaction to Compazine. And off ya go... BuhBye.

I think the Ativan helped, cuz I don't really remember the drive home, and the next thing I do remember is waking up like EONS later it seemed. All in all, we were at the ER for 2-2.5 hours. I was pretty impressed by that. I come from an Army brat background and if you aren't in an ER for at least 8 hours, you just had a lengthy doctor's appointment.

So, next day I take my Benadryl every six hours (I added some Valium in there too, same crap as Ativan), and slept all damn day. If I didn't sleep I would have gone nuts with the constant need to be moving. By Tuesday evening, I was finally feeling this || short of normal. For me, anyway.

Wow, look at that. I didn't have trouble filling up that space after all. Toodles. It's late now. I have a really early laser hair removal appointment (the whole shabang baby! :D) in the morning and then off to the campin'.

I hope everyone has a great, fun, safe, Independence Day weekend!

Smile!

Just a quick note here. I do plan on expanding on this subject later. But for now...

Over the past year or so, I've been slowly sinking back into my depression. It finally clicked that maybe my regular doctor isn't the best person to be figuring out my brain chemical issues.  So, I went to a psychiatrist, and she has me on a new medication. I've been on it for about 6 weeks now, and I feel AMAZING! I haven't felt this good in probably 13 years. I feel like ME. Anyway... this is just leading up to show a  pic of me. I don't like pics of me in general, so this is monumental folks. This was me yesterday. I just really liked how happy I looked and wanted to share.

Enjoy!

and SMILE :D

Auto Tuning

I don't usually share videos, but this had me LAUGHING OUT LOUD!!! Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Auto Tuning from Casey Donahue on Vimeo.

Vimeo HQ - 4:12pm

Blake needs to talk to Jack about the homepage... or at least he tries to.

Wordless Wednesday

SXSW 2009 - Day 1 - Friday

I took the first day of SXSW off, even though the movies didn't start until the evening. I have to have time to prepare you see. Rest, relax, basic slacking. I had planned on going to the panel on getting the most out of SXSW. But as usual I didn't plan well. The traffic at 2 pm was worse than rush hour then combine that with the pouring rain. Not pretty. So it took me 45 minutes to get down to the convention center. I still needed to get my goodie bag. I managed to snag a meter spot and only had to pay 75 cents to park. Even that was overkill cuz it didn't take me but ten minutes to get in and out. The ride home took me an hour cuz of the scared pansy drivers. You'd think it was ice and not just a wee bit of water.

Later, Mike and I headed down to Paramount to catch I Love You, Man. I went to my badge line which was INSANE and Mike went into his little film pass line. I got us seats, Mike was able to get in, and voila. The entire main cast were there and it was very cool to see them. Excuse the blurry picture, but we were quite far up the balcony.

The movie was hilarious. Paul Rudd was excellent. Understated, which made the hilarity that much more yanno, hilarious. The Q&A afterwards was a bit of a bummer, because Janet Pierson obviously didn't think about what kinds of questions she would ask her first Q&A at her first screening of the first year as her being the director for the SXSW Film. If that were me, I think I would have practiced about 100 questions to ask. Just to have them in the pocket and ready to go. Instead of fumbling around, hemming & hawing. Bah. Makes me miss Matt Dentler, that's for sure.

We stayed at Paramount and watched ExTerminators, with Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, and Amber Heard. It was filmed in Austin, so that was excellent of course. It was about a group of ladies in an anger management group that decide to take matters into their own hands when it comes to the men in their lives. Very good stuff. Heather Graham was very good and I'm not usually that impressed with her. Mike also said she has "awesome boobs". Yes, yes she does.

Introducing...

I thought I would introduce y'all to my xbox live avatar -- reigners...

This does not look anything like me, as some people like to do for their avatars. Well, I mean, I do have red hair and I'm short, and I am probably that pale, and I do sometimes wear pig tails, but I'm not that skinny or you know... a vampire. Also, I would never ever wear a skirt like that.  This is more like wishful thinking. What would I like to look like if I could. Yup, this would probably be it.

So, thanks to the wonderful world of avatars, I can look like that online, while playing dorked out games that I love.

The pic on the left is my gamertag picture or whatever that is called. How I took that picture with my avatar's eyes closed I will never know. But it's cool, so I kept it. I know, you're jealous. It's okay, many people are.

Latelly I've been playing all the Lego games. Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, and I've recently just started Lego Batman. I also have the new Prince of Persia that I need to start too. But I've been in the puzzle-y mood so Lego it has been.  I also think that I may be moving my time from xbox to knitting. I'm like that ya see. I do things in phases, in an all or nothing way. I do one thing and I do it a lot and I mean A LOT. Then I burn out or just get over it and move on to the next thing. I feel like I'm in a transition stage at the moment between xbox and knitting.

We will have to see what wins out.

Knit 1, Purl 1

So, I've taken up the knitting. I've just started, but I think I'm really going to like it. It's good, tedious, repetitive fun. I am most definitely a beginner. I can't get my edges very tight. They always seem to end up loose. Also, as you can see from my example.. I messed up by doing 2 rows of purl stitches. I was able to correct this without undoing it AGAIN. I think I've started over about 37 times. I got a book and then I got a DVD cuz the book was confusing to me. The DVD rocks cuz it shows you and explains stuff and each section is seperate, so essentially it teaches you a lesson then stops so you can practice. When you're ready, you start up the next lesson.

On a completely different note, we went camping this weekend with some friends. We went out to some land with a primitive cabin near Mason, TX. We were there from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning. Saturday night was just killer awesome. Our friends had their 3 kids, and brother there. We played Catchphrase while the grownups got silly drunk and we had a friggin' blast. I had so much fun, that I ended up getting up in the middle of the night to go pee and added a bit of hurling to the list. I think it was more from the sweet wine I brought and not drinking enough water. Cuz I wasn't THAT drunk. The next night was much more somber, cuz all the kids except the youngest left. It was no less fun, but it was definitely a different fun.

We also ate at this one cafe there called Willow Creek Cafe. I think we ended up eating there three times. It was lishous! They had meringue pies with the highest meringue I've ever seen on a pie. I think Mike has pictures on his website, so I'll try to grab one or something.

Ok, just a quick random update. Felt like I needed to write something. So there :P

25 Random Things About Me

Ok, I did this for Facebook, but I ended up digging it quite a bit, so I'm duplicating the post here. I'm also doing this in response to a tag I got from a fellow EntreCarder... Pinklady.  Thanks for those that tagged me on this!  It was hella fun.

1. I have very little sympathy for humans, but can cry over road kill. Animals are at our mercy people.

2. I have written 4 paragraphs of a vampire-type book I want to write. But that was over a year ago. I feel like me and creativity no longer know each other.

3. I eat meat, but I CANNOT deal with raw meat. It's gross. The vegetarian husband cooks all my meat for me :D

4. My house burning down was one of the best things to happen to me. Except I lost all of my yearbooks.

5. I still feel like I'm a kid. I seriously don't want to grow up. (Mom, I'll never dress like an adult. It's just not in me.)

6. I have a screw in my left fifth metatarsal. I broke said bone while walking on a flat surface, wearing flat (but 2 inch soles) shoes. According to my husband, I went to the "Aggie School of Walking". I will never hear the end of this. Also, if I sit cross-legged with my left foot on the floor, I can feel the head of the screw.

7. I cannot seem to grasp the importance of taking care of myself. The basics are painful to me. Eating, sleeping, drinking water, facial regimens, makeup... These things take way more work than they should. My husband has to constantly remind me to eat.

8. I desperately want a female BFF. Someone I can call and just chitchat with if I wanted to. Or even better... show up at her house and just hang. What a friggin' concept.

9. Not only do I absolutely adore Justin Timberlake, but I have a really unexplainable love of all things catchy and poppy.

10. I really love listening to Rap/Hip-Hop at insanely high volumes.

11. I know a lot of ladies think they are gross, but I only use OB tampons.

12. I wouldn't be brokenhearted if I never have a kid. I'm just too spoiled and selfish.

13. I cannot be the person who breaks a spine on a book. I read a book just opened enough to see the words.

14. I will never not dye my hair anything but red. It's an obsession... or a mistake by nature. I should have just been born that way.

15. I'm seriously contemplating getting gastric bypass/lap-band.

16. I have a word doc for every television show I've ever watched. I keep track of what episodes I have & have not seen. Don't judge.

17. I scan in every single receipt that my husband and I get. Granted, it does help with taxes, but still. It's kinda weird, I know.

18. I've been rejected by SXSW twice for the same short film that I wrote/produced/edited, but I'm still giddy that I even have something to submit to a film festival. Hollah!

19. I feel like I talk too much, and am far too open with what I talk about, so that makes people not like me. (Perhaps reason for lack of #8). You'd think this would shut me up, but I think it just proves that nothing can shut me up.

20. I feel like I'm maybe two bad incidents from being an agoraphobe.

21. I'm damn proud of my 2 years in individual therapy and the 3 years in group therapy, and have never been afraid to tell anyone. I'd highly recommend group therapy for pretty much anyone. I think we as people really have no clue how to communicate with others with any degree of decent depth.

22. I really dislike it when someone touches my fortune cookie before I do (excluding the server, of course). Most of my friends/family know this and are very good about it. Thanks buddies!

23. I adore monotonous, tedious, even repetitive tasks. I'm about to take up knitting. It'll be a BLAST!

24. If I ever get a tattoo, it'll be on the top of my foot. Possibly a Shakespeare quote. However, I can't quite get to that level of commitment.

25. I miss my eyebrow piercing.

A Quick Pic

I got a blog award!

One of my fellow Entrecard-ers gave me an award! It came from Isolated Existence and is given to blogs with great Gratitude and/or Attitude. Thanks so much!

I'm supposed to pass it on to 10 other blogs, but I'm just really lazy at the moment. Maybe if I remember in the future I will award it to 10 others.

Make sure you visit her website!

Thanks again!

Gimp Toe

Q: What happens when you get off your lazy ass and organize your garage?

A: You somehow, without knowing it, jam your toe and get Metatarsalgia.

I honestly do not remember hitting my toe on anything. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that I did not hit my toe on anything. I just stood and walked back and forth for 7ish hours. Now, I have this Metatarsalgia (which really just means sore around one of the toe/foot bones). From everything I read about it, and from what the doctor says, a mild case of it can take about a month to completely clear up. Lovely. In the mean time I have to stay off of it as much as possible. 

But, our garage is about 90% organized. So, YAY us :D

A Simple Christmas

I honestly thought that I might miss the whole presents thing this year once Christmas came around. But I have to say that I really don't. It just means a lot to be with my family having a good time being silly with each other.

Last night we stayed up until 2am playing games. We first played Apples to Apples, which is a bit of a simple game, but it's so much fun. We then played my favorite, but everyone else's least favorite, Trivial Pursuit. It was a new version that has Easy, Medium, Hard questions. That ended up taking us forever. But I love it, so everyone else can just suck it :D

We're probably going to go see a movie later. Most likely it will be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I always think it's weird when people go see movies on Christmas. And then it dawned on me that we do it almost every year. Huh, we are a weird bunch, no doubt.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone!!!!!

I also want to say hey and thanks to all my new visitors lately. Thanks for all the comments. I promise I will respond more in the future. With the holidays, I've just been a bit preoccupied.

I'll have to tell y'all about our recent adventures in a Cary, North Carolina hookah bar next time. Good times.

The Economy

I must apologize to the nation. Perhaps, even the world.

My family could single-handedly bring this economy to a complete halt. You see, we are not buying each other any presents this year. I know, it's quite shocking.

For those that are not in the know. The six of us - Mom, Dad, Bro, SIL, Me, Mike - tend to go a little nuts when it comes to giving each other gifts. For a few years, I would rack up the credit cards at Christmas, and then pay them off throughout the year. Now I'm smarter. I use my Amex Blue Cash all year long for every purchase possible, so I can get the cash back. We get quite a bit back, which I then use to pay for Christmas stuff.

One year, for example, we all gave each other a Playstation2. That same year, I got a Sony MiniDV camcorder. And those were just 2 of my gifts. I'll have to find some pictures of underneath our tree, cuz it's one of those things you have to see to believe. A couple years ago, we caught a clue, and decided we needed to tame it down. So, we tried to put a limit on how much we could spend per person ($150). My mom hated that. She, of course, did not stay within that budget. Then last year we tried doing a secret santa sort of thing. We still had the same limit of $150, but each person only had one person to buy for. Mom still didn't quite stay within her budget, but she did get better. She was insanely frustrated by her inability to buy for both of her kids, since she had gotten someone else. Last year, we put all the names in the hat, and pulled them again for this year.

Then my brother had to go and move to North Carolina, and my mom went off on her boss and tendered her resignation as of Jan. 1. With those particularly strenuous financial situations, we decided to do no gifts at all this year. Considering the loot I generally walk away with, you'd think I might take this decision hard. Fret not. I was actually suddenly very excited.

I don't have to buy any gifts. I just have to get my butt to Virginia to visit my family, and that's that. How freakin' awesome is that?

But, to my fellow Americans and Earthlings.... I do apologize for what this could do to our economy :D

No Pain, No Gain

Yesterday, I had my third P&M massage. Last week I had my second one. That one was brutal. I thought the first one was rough, it paled in comparison to the second one.

She worked on my hip flexor muscles and my IT band. The hip flexors were the real killers. Because I sit on my butt all day at work and at home, this makes my hip flexors pull at my lower back when I am in a more straight position. My right side was my main problem, and this was no different. My right hip was insanely sore. She had to stop about half way through and ice it while she worked on the other side. The left side was pretty brutal too. If I was going to scream during one of these, it would have been during this part. She has to keep reminding me to breathe, cuz I would just quit suddenly.

Later that night, I managed to put myself through some more pain. I took an ice bath. Holy moly. This was just torturous. There I am sitting in the bath while the cold as hell water fills in it up. I'm in a hoodie with the hoodie on and tied, biker shorts on, and my teeth are chattering. And this is all BEFORE the ice gets put in! Mike had the pleasure of emptying two bags of ice into the bath with me. And I do mean pleasure, cuz that boy was laughing quite a lot. Once the ice was in, I stayed in there for a little over 10 minutes. I quickly dressed into every warm piece of clothing I owned and went under the covers. Slept quite nice that night.

And the most shocking thing of all... I went back yesterday for my third P&M session which was focused on my right hip a little more, my right hamstring, and my left achilles. When she worked on my left achilles, she actually worked on my calf alot. There was some crazy pain in there, no doubt.

So, for now, I'm good to go. Physically at least. I haven't had a headache since my first session and I'm feeling quite loose. It's definitely something I will continue to do in the future when I feel myself tightening up. Better that than waiting til I'm in such crazy pain.

Woot!

P&M Myofascial Release

For about the past three weeks, I've been really incredibly uncomfortable.

It seemed to start while I was working out. I was doing my usual lifting of weights with my trainer and I had some seriously major pain shoot up the right side of my neck and explode inside of my head. I shake it off, try the exercise again, and bam. Same thing. My trainer feels my neck and presses around in the muscles and he actually can't believe how tight my neck & shoulder muscles are on my right side. He says the left side feels absolutely relaxed, but the right is like a series of rocks. He helps me stretch it for a bit, and we try again, and happens again.

So, this happens on certain exercises for a couple weeks, but it gets to a completely unbearable point. My neck is also so tight it gives me headaches everyday for 3 weeks. I just couldn't take it anymore. So, I do the unthinkable. I get a full body massage at my gym. Yes, I did get a massage in Hawaii for the first time, but I still don't consider myself a person who gets massages. You have to understand how uncomfortable even the thought of massage makes me, so I had to be in some serious discomfort to end up getting one. Well, i did. It was great during, and even for a couple hours after. But then boom, I feel it all coming back.

The only thought that crossed my mind at that time was "Motherfucker!". I hate to be so crude. Ha! You know me, I lie. I love to be so crude. At this point, I know Mike has had a type of massage that helped some weird problems he's had in the past... numb/tingly elbow and other weirdness. It's a seriously painful type of massage but in the end it seems really helpful. Since a really painful massage is hard to .. you know.. get excited about and all that... I finally came to a point where I was willing to give it a try. I make an appointment at Therapy Central of Round Rock.

My appointment was yesterday, and I absolutely loved the therapist I had. I knew I adored her from the first 90 seconds. Which I guess is kind of important in someone that is going to make you feel intense pain. Mike's friend actually works there, but he just had some knee surgery, so he couldn't see me. But while I was there for my appointment he was also there to get seen for his knee. Before my session started he came in and said hello and whatnot. He had joked to not worry about all his screaming, but that turned out to also be true. He did scream quite a bit. My therapist, Susan, and I were laughing about it. Well, I joined her in laughing when I had the breath capability to do it.

The method they use is P&M (Pin & Move) Myofascial Release. They pin the muscle, and that alone can hurt, and other times hurt so bad you don't want to breathe. However, when they start moving that muscle as they have it pinned, you really want to slap yo mama. Yowza, Holy Crap, and Kill Me Now... all in one go. She worked on my chest, my shoulders, shoulder blades, and neck/head. Some of the places on my head hurt in that "OMG, this hurts but I love you so much for finding that spot". She also suffers from migraines so she knows all those sweet spots.

Right after I felt fabulous. All loosey goosey, and just high on life. A few hours later some of the soreness started to set in. It made me not look forward to today... cuz OMG. I am so sore today. And what do I have to do first thing this morning... go work out with the trainer... on my Chest/Back/Shoulders. All the spots got worked on. Man, i cannot believe I made it through. I hurt just having my t-shirt on. Holy moly. I was expecting to be literally black & blue everywhere. But I wasn't. If I had been I would have taken pictures for you. Cuz it would have been gross, and you'd need to see that.

Anyway... even though, I've gone on and on and on about the pain (I mean, look at their logo for Pete's sake, they advertise the pain!!)  I would highly recommend this to anyone. Even if you aren't suffering from something major. I think it would be good for anyone to get your shit all worked out.

Up next... Monday... where we work on my lower half. I'll keep ya posted on how much fun that ends up being :D